How do you folks sharpen your hedge trimmers?

Hi everyone
I'm new here and as I've just been sharpening my Stihl HL 75 with a flat file , I thought I'd ask you all how you sharpen your hedge trimmers? I have five Echo's and the Stihl. I burn up two to four 12v Stihl chainsaw grinders a year depending how much I use the machines, (they heat up and die) witch is a lot right now, really, Does a "Dremmel" work? How bout a stone thing with a well powered cordless drill? And then, battery life? What do you all have to say?

I take mine to a commercial blade sharping shop.They sharpen band saw blades ,circular saw blades, hedge trimmers etc..They charge me $17.50 per hedge trimmer to sharpen.They stay sharp for about 2-4 months depending on usage. I found them in the phone book.

Moose, do you use a Dremel? Can you sharpen one machine before it heats up too much? Is a drill operator friendly? I havn't tried one yet and that seems to be a real option, thanks. Like I said, I have to keep six machines sharp and need to find something that works better than those 12v things.

BB36, I just can't handle 17.50 (give or take) a pop as I have to sharpen a lot more, but thanks all the same, hmmm if someone would pick up and deliver that could be an option...

Bob, yea I go through a lot of stones, but also I burn out a lot of the grinders because time constraints in the field makes me push them to the max, however they shur are great. And I'll bite, what color does a smurf turn?

So I guess what I want to know is, what works best in a "shop" situation, when one would have to sharpen several machines at once? and yes, on ocasion we use these mchines pretty hard sometimes Thanks guys......Oly

We use a composite grinding wheel 1/8" thick 10" to 12" diameter mounted on a bench grinder(no shielding). Blades are then sharpened off the machine against the sides of the grinding wheel at the approiate angle. When reassembled we apply a coat of chain and cable lube in between the blades.

I don't know how you doing things but I get least around $500 profit from my Trimmer before I need sharpening. Also, to do a good job takes me about 30 minutes. And, at $65/$75 an hour for trimming, it's not really worth my time to sharpen them myself.
What you might want to do is have one trimmer just for cutting and hacking, and another one just for that final trim. This is what I do. This way the crummy one will at least keeping cutting, and the good one will not get beat up and will stay sharpen for a long time. Last, I've found that even with sharp blades, they start to "curl" and the ends will not "touch", which what you need to happen to get that nice clean cut. So, and especially how you beat up the blades, a sharp blade won't cut well unless, like a sissors, the blades touch and actually "cut" the material. Hope this helps,
Pete

Part-time PETE
I work Part-time because I don't have to make money......